This invention generally relates to communications over telephone lines and more specifically to units at different locations for conveying voice signals and digital signals over these telephone lines.
This invention is particularly adapted for use with digital data processing systems that include digital data processing equipment and programs for operating that equipment. These programs can be divided into two categories: (1) operating programs that control the interaction between the elements in the digital data processing equipment and (2) application programs for performing specific functions or tasks, such as word processing, data retrieval, and physical process control tasks. The application programs usually are processed by the equipment under the supervision of one of more of the operating programs.
There are three classes of vendors of such systems. One class sells products that comprise entire systems including equipment, operating programs, and application programs. Products from a second class of vendor include only the equipment or only the equipment and operating programs. The customer then prepares his own application programs or purchases them as products from still a third class of vendor.
Vendors in each class must normally provide some assistance to their customers to correct malfunctions or to facilitate use of their products. There are several approaches to providing such assistance. For some customer installations there may be justification for employing a technically qualified person at the customer's location on a permanent basis. In smaller installations, such expense will not be justified, so the customer may designate an employee, who has no specific training, to act as an operator and a liaison with the vendor. The vendor then provides guidance to the operator.
With these, or other, approaches to customer assistance, the operator discusses problems with a vendor representative. Currently, this is accomplished by telephone or by a visit from the vendor representative. If operating data from the system is required and a telephone conference is being conducted, the vendor representative instructs the operator in the specific steps for obtaining that data. When the data is obtained, the operator reads it to the vendor representative over the telephone, or it may be sent to him by mail. This procedure is tedious. Moreover, the vendor may be reluctant to allow an inexperienced person access to all parts of the system, especially the operating programs, as incorrectly performed procedures could have disastrous effects on the customer's data and/or programs.
When the telephone procedure is not effective, the vendor representative visits the customer to provide direct assistance. Delays in the arrival of the representative may be unacceptable to the customer if system operation is critical to the customer's business. Moreover, such visits are not efficient because the representative oftentimes will spend more time traveling than he will providing assistance.
In accordance with another, more sophisticated, approach, conventional digital data communications capability is provided at each customer location and at the vendor's location. The customer calls the vendor and explains the problem to the representative. The representative places a separate call to an allocated telephone number of the customer's equipment and communicates with the system through the data communications equipment. Then the representative calls the customer back to explain the problem and solution or to obtain additional information.
There are a number of problems with this approach. Most importantly, communications between the vendor representative and the customer and his system are cumbersome. Two telephone connections must be made, and the customer will usually have to incur the expense of dedicating a telephone trunk to the system and of connecting this trunk to the system. Sometimes the system malfunction may result from errors in operator procedure. When this occurs, it is very desirable for the representative to describe the errors and show them visually to the customer, which is not easily done with this approach. The customer cannot observe actions of the vendor representative, unless special programs or equipment modifictions are made, so it is more difficult to explain problems and solutions. Security is also a problem. Once the vendor has access to a telephone connection to the customer's system, it is difficult to monitor and control his access to the system. Consequently, unauthorized and undetected access is possible.